Question about Soft Stepping

[tgoodspe1991]

Hey all, just a quick question about soft stepping shafts in the wedges, specifically as it relates to Dynamic Gold or any shaft line where the PW and down use the 9-iron shaft and not a dedicated wedge shaft.

 

I understand soft stepping is using the next shaft up. Technically, the PW and down are already using the 9-iron shaft, if you keep the soft-stepped trend you'd be putting the 8-iron shaft in, but wouldn't that be like SSx2?

 

So if I'm soft stepping a shaft would it make more sense to go:

 

Shaft -> Club

3 -> 4

4 -> 5

5 -> 6

6 -> 7

7 -> 8

8 -> 9

9 -> PW

9 -> GW/SW/LW

 

Love to hear anyone's thoughts...

[morrisminor]

Interesting question, I've actually never thought of putting the 8i shaft in the wedges as I have always thought of it as a sliding scale where you just move the base line along, if you follow me. So when you hard step the shortest shaft goes up to the 8 iron and when you soft step the shortest shaft goes up to the PW like you suggest.

 

Interested to hear what others say but personally I think you are right with your table.

[halliedog]

Hey all, just a quick question about soft stepping shafts in the wedges, specifically as it relates to Dynamic Gold or any shaft line where the PW and down use the 9-iron shaft and not a dedicated wedge shaft.

 

I understand soft stepping is using the next shaft up. Technically, the PW and down are already using the 9-iron shaft, if you keep the soft-stepped trend you'd be putting the 8-iron shaft in, but wouldn't that be like SSx2?

 

So if I'm soft stepping a shaft would it make more sense to go:

 

Shaft -> Club

3 -> 4

4 -> 5

5 -> 6

6 -> 7

7 -> 8

8 -> 9

9 -> PW

9 -> GW/SW/LW

 

Love to hear anyone's thoughts...

 

I think you max out at 9? So you really don't have any other options? I'm not sure I'm understanding your question - there is a 9 iron for taper tips, so why would you be putting an 8 shaft into a PW? To continue SSing you would put the 9 shaft into PW,SW,LW just as you say.

 

2 things to consider:

- SSing 1x is changing the flex +/- 1/3 flex, so most "amateurs" are unlikely to tell the difference (unless the higher weight of the stiffer shaft suits your swing better). I personally get along better with a heavier shaft, and am not too sensitive to "feel" "loading" or "kick point", so my preference is to go stiffer (usually higher weight) and SS 1 or 2x. Usually my dispersion gets a little better the heavier/stiffer I go also.

- No matter feel throughout the "iron set", most people prefer a "heavier" feel in their wedges because of the partial shots you use them for more often (you can "feel" the head position better throughout the swing), so you might want to look at your GW,SW,LW shafts as entirely different entities than your "set"? I think this is the reason many stock "Wedge" shafts are TT S400?

[Howard_Jones]

Hey all, just a quick question about soft stepping shafts in the wedges, specifically as it relates to Dynamic Gold or any shaft line where the PW and down use the 9-iron shaft and not a dedicated wedge shaft.

 

I understand soft stepping is using the next shaft up. Technically, the PW and down are already using the 9-iron shaft, if you keep the soft-stepped trend you'd be putting the 8-iron shaft in, but wouldn't that be like SSx2?

 

So if I'm soft stepping a shaft would it make more sense to go:

 

Shaft -> Club

3 -> 4

4 -> 5

5 -> 6

6 -> 7

7 -> 8

8 -> 9

9 -> PW

9 -> GW/SW/LW

 

Love to hear anyone's thoughts...

 

Thats Soft stepping once, and when we move into wedges there is a few options and things to consider.

Wedges normally has a higher BBGM (Bottom of bore to ground) than irons has, so on most shafts we go a tad softer for that reason alone, even if we used a dedicated "GW" shaft, who dont exist in the DG line up.

A SW value higher than irons also soften wedges a bit.

 

There used to be a 36.50" Wedge shaft, but DG has a rather steep flex slope, so that shaft was stronger than most players prefer in wedges we mostly use for partials, so today the #9 iron is the shortest and stiffest.

 

In the set above, we can stiffen up the shaft we want to use for GW if its played to full swing, we simply tip trim it, even if it is a taper tip shaft. Most hosels accept 3/8" without insert problems, and if we can tip trim 4/8", we have made the 36.50" wedge shaft TT dont make anymore, and the set played to full swing. 4-GW will have flex progression all the way equal to SS1.

 

For wedges played to partials mostly, we can consider going softer, and use either the #9 or the #8 iron, and if we play DG S300 in irons, we can also use DG X100 #8 iron shafts for wedges. They will be close to the S300 PW shaft TT dont make, but with lower launch and higher spin on the high lofted wedges like SW and LW.